_Dude's First grow

[_Dude]

Hi, I'm on my first grow. I germed four seeds and only one made it to the tub under a 400w light. Medium is the rockwool starter cube it germed in, placed in hydroton. Watered by wick action (thick cord) dropped into the 20-something gallon tub.

Res is at 240 PPM now, but it's been higher for the last few days (260-360), so I added some plain (Ph 5.6) water earlier today to weaken it. My ROed water is 140ppm after ph-adjustment and I'm using Pure Blend Pro Grow only at this point.

Ph has been fluctuating between 5 and 6.5 because I can't seem to find the right amounts of Ph up and Ph down to add. Right now it's at 6.4 but I just added some Ph down.

Ignore the droopy leaves. I've been cagey about trusting the wicking action to keep the medium supplied because seemed kind of dry. Then I noticed that the cord was barely breaking the res surface so after adding the water I poured some over the medium. Before that there was no leaf droop at all, so I'm pretty sure that's from overwatering.

Questions:

Is there a calculator for how long it takes a fluid to completely mix? I need to know how long to wait after adding ph adjusters or nutes before testing PPM or Ph. The reason I'm wondering is because I adjust the res water by way of a 5g bucket connected to the res by 1" pvc.

Should I be worried about oxygen? This is just the veg stage, for flowering I'm transferring them to DWC under a 1000w HPS, and oxygenation is taken care of there.

Should I be trusting wicking action for watering? It has me kind of nervous.

What's that necrosis and yellowing on lower leaves about? If I remember right, it started before I added any nutes to the res.

Is there a guide around for how to take good macro pictures with a digital camera? Mine don't reflect the color well (yellows and greens run together) and aren't sharp enough.

 

[Guest]

dude plant looks hungry

 

[_Dude]

That would make sense. The leaves were yellowing when I took it out of the germ dome, where it had only plain water. What PPM should I shoot for with the nutes?

 

[_Dude]

Another question: should I ph-balance or nute-balance my res water first? I've been ph-balancing after adding nutes so far.

 

[sproutco]

Dude, I am not sure about your wick watering scheme. Soilless potting soil growing may be alot more forgiving till you get the hang of growing.

 

[_Dude]

What's soilless potting soil growing?

I can easily change my watering system for veg. The whole veg stage was an afterthought because of the way my recirc DWC system design evolved (loosely based on Blazeoneup's tuts). I had huge problems designing the return lines because everything I tried leaked. I finally settled on Uniseals and 1" pvc (rock-solid btw). The problem is they're so rock-solid that they're practically impossible to adjust. I had to space the DWC buckets as I guessed they'd be spaced in final flowering. They wound up being too far apart for my 1kw hps lamp at the height I figured I'd need it, so I decided to add a veg stage where I could have smaller pots closer together under a smaller lamp.

My veg setup is a 30 gallon plastic chest (looks just like a steamer trunk) connected by 1" pvc to a 5 gallon control bucket. There are six holes cut in top of the chest for the net cups (each is about the size of a Dixie cup, can't remember exact dimensions), but I plan to double that number. Each cup holds a rockwool starter cube surrounded by hydroton.

What do you recommend? I can buy a pump and attach drip lines if I need to.

 

[_Dude]

I'm using RO water and I keep reading I need to add Cal-mag. Others say Cal-mag plus. Is there a difference, or is this the typical stoner thoughtlessness?

 

[jonnybgood29]

dude you got an under ferted, uderwatered plant there..... you mat want to top water a few days, until you have the root systme to handle a wicking system... those hydroton are awefully dry!

 

[_Dude]

Yeah, johnny, that's what got me worried in the first place about the wick action - I kept thinking to myself, if the idea is that everything (nylon cord, hydroton, rockwool) is supposed to carry water by capillary action, why is it so dry?

 

[_Dude]

I threw out the res water and started over. This time I measured the res (20 gallons), ph-balanced it first (5.7), then added Pure Blend Pro Grow according to the bottle recommendations for seedlings and cuttings (7ml per gallon of water, ended up 330ppm). Then I redid the wicks. I put three more cords for a total of four, and made sure they were all right up against the rockwool. Then I soaked all the medium with some of the res water.

My RO water is 130ppm before nutes, and the res water is now 330ppm. Does that sound about right? I also bought some Liquid Karma, should I add that now or wait for flowering?

 

[_Dude]

Magic and Jonny were right, I was underfeeding. Its growing much better now.

I have another question. What do people use to measure out lots of nutes? I was thinking a big ass eye-dropper type thing with metric measurements on it would be good but I wouldn't know where to look. Pouring from big bottles into tiny measuring spoons takes too long and makes a mess.

The wick thing is working great, by the way. It has four nylon cords (clothesline) draped into the res and it seems to be self-watering perfectly.

 

[Big Bud Bear]

HAHAH, those pix made my laugh. Why, because it reminded me of my days when i first started! Don't give up, with knownledge, it just keeps getting better and better

 

[mace_ecam]

use syringes for measuring

if you're new to the game, stick to prooven concepts
that applies to grow method and nutes
unless you like failures

 

[Guest]

Good luck on the grow dude, I think it'll work for you but for a first grow it might have been less complicated for you to just grow in containers with pro mix or something like that. One thing about hydro is that it's less forgiving because the medium doesn't have buffering capabilities. I was wondering if when you started those seeds if you soaked the cubes in ph adjusted water. It just doesn't look like that seedling got a good start in life, it can and probably will adjust but the whole system that you're using just seems very complicated for a first grow. Growing pot is pretty easy but you really do have to learn how to walk before you try to run. Try to simplify, one thing that most new growers do is to overlove their plants sometimes to the point of killing them.

 

[_Dude]

Mace,

use syringes for measuring

Yeah, that's what I was looking for. Good looking out thanks.

Rude,
Technically it isn't my first grow. I had one years ago that didn't yield well and had to be harvested early. That was a soil grow and I didn't put much effort into it.

I felt like running a setup I wouldn't have to scrap a year later when I upgraded. I kept hearing that hydroponics was the way to go so I figured why bother growing in soil when I'm just going to switch later anyways.

Yes, I soaked the cubes in ph balanced water.

As far as overlove goes, I'm the opposite. I've read quite a bit and know that overwatering and overferting are two big newbie mistakes...so, I underwatered and underferted.

 

[WeekendSmoker]

How did you start your seeds off? i want to attempt my first grow and want to know as many different ways to start seeds off as possible. thanks for any comments dude.

 

[dre86]

read read read

 

[_Dude]

My second batch of babies is 6.5 weeks old from sprout. They're under a 400 watt HID for 18 hours a day and from what I can tell they're getting plenty of nutes. Two of them have three main stems, the rest have single main stems, but all main stems have roughly 6 nodes with a seventh emerging. Problem is none of them are alternating, and I can't tell their sex. Most of them are 8-9 inches tall (one is a runt at 6-7"). Should I be worried? Should I just take some cuttings first, then throw them under the 1kw HID for 12 hours a day and sex them later? Or should I put them under the 1kw HID for 18 a day to veg them a while longer, then flower them?

How did you start your seeds off? i want to attempt my first grow and want to know as many different ways to start seeds off as possible. thanks for any comments dude.

Nothing too complicated. I used rockwool starter cubes (they're like 1 or 2 inch cubes of rockwool). I soaked the cubes in ph-balanced (5.6) water, then stuck the seeds into the little holes in the cubes. Then I put them into a cloner under 4 flouros running 18 hours a day.

Here's the cloner I used:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=28332&highlight=wick+cloner

Except I used 2 and 3 liter bottles. I did two batches. The first was a batch of four (I THINK, my memory's not that great and I didn't have a log at the time). Two sprouted and one survived. The second was a batch of eight and five sprouted and all survived (killed one in veg though). Don't ask me what was different between the first batch and the second. These are some old seeds (fridge for a year). After 10 days I put them into veg.

 

[Litz_C]

keep up the good work dood...

u remind me of my first grow, but mine first grow was way horrible... all my crop cover in poweder mildew.

i still fuckin those lil bastard now!!

 

[_Dude]

The one pheno outgrew all the rest by a country mile. She took over the light and the rest died. She grew about 4' tall. I stupidly tried to transplant her and it was a disaster. Long story short, I broke her stem where it meets the roots and didn't know it until yesterday when I finally gave up on her. Lucked out and managed to take a cutting before she croaked. Mum #2 is now about three weeks past transplant and is looking great. I changed from Pure Blend Pro to the Maxi series because I read PPM meters don't work with organics and I don't have time for that shit. I switched to a dry nute because I don't want to pay shipping for water.

I have a question about the reservoir. Temps are at 22.3 degrees C / 72.14 degrees F at the hottest time of day today. Is that too hot? I know around 65 F is best, but I'm wondering what temp I should start worrying at. It's a 3 bucket system, two buckets for mothers, those big ass net pot lids on top, the kind that take up the whole diameter of the bucket, filled with hydroton. They're wrapped in that bubble tape insulation. The control bucket has a lid made of the insulation.

I plan to add some plumbing so I can pull the mag drive pump out of the res, but what else can I do to lower temps? I'm not shelling out for a chiller. If I do make a chiller it'll be a DIY job with a mini fridge.

Build styrofoam lids to go over the hydroton, and the control bucket? Will that really help much?